Gays Form Patrols to Battle Hate Crimes : Self-defense: With attacks on homosexuals increasing, the West Hollywood effort is part of a mobilization throughout the Southland.

Clad in matching black T-shirts and armed with flashlights and handcuffs, four members of a gay street patrol marched through shadowy alleys and parking lots on a recent chilly night, on the lookout for gay-bashers.

They patrolled past gay bars and restaurants along West Hollywood’s Santa Monica Boulevard in a formation taught to them by the Guardian Angels, a national anti-crime patrol group. A short, stocky man with tattoos on his forearms and earrings in both ears barked out instructions as the others followed.

The patrol, formed in August by the militant gay and lesbian rights group Queer Nation, is part of a growing mobilization throughout Southern California to combat an increase in anti-gay hate crimes. In addition to forming street patrols, gays and lesbians are signing up in greater numbers for self-defense classes. And a few are begining to carry weapons such as baseball bats and Mace.

In the city of Los Angeles, the number of hate crimes reported against gays and lesbians rose 22% last year--from 163 incidents to 199--according to the country’s leading gay services agency. And according to a report by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute, the number of anti-gay hate crimes in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Minneapolis-St. Paul increased by an average of 42% in 1990, to a total of 1,588 incidents.

But gay and lesbian activists said these figures underrepresent the reality because more than 85% of crimes against gays and lesbians go unreported.

The call to arms, activists said, has been fueled by a frustration among gays who believe police and local government are not taking the problem seriously. Gov. Pete Wilson’s Sept. 29 veto of a bill to outlaw job discrimination against homosexuals inflamed those sentiments and prompted a series of noisy protests.

“People are growing more assertive,” said Mark Kostopoulos, a spokesman for ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power). “They are seeking to defend themselves whether it’s an attack from on the street or an attack from Sacramento.”

Law enforcement officials have mixed feelings about the trend, saying they do not oppose the street patrols or the self-defense courses but fear that participants may try to take the law into their own hands.

“Whenever you get citizens who go out and try to do law enforcement work you are going to run into problems because they haven’t been trained,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Capt. Clarence Chapman.

Chapman, the department’s top officer in the West Hollywood station, said he fears that patrol members may try to intervene in a violent situation or try to arrest someone. He also worries that people who take a one-day self-defense class will feel they can confront criminals on the street.

“What are you going to do in a 15-minute course that will teach you how to deal with a man with a butcher knife?” he asked.

Members of Queer Nation--described by some as the most militant faction of the gay rights movement--formed the West Hollywood foot patrol in response to an increase in gay-bashing around gay bars and restaurants along Santa Monica Boulevard.

The patrol group currently has eight members. Four recruits are in training, and there are plans to expand the Friday night patrols to include Saturday nights.

“A few of us got together and said we are just sick of hearing about all the bashings,” said Diane, a member of the patrol who, fearing reprisals, asked that her full name not be used.

David, another member, said the group does not try to provoke violence but seeks through visibility to be a deterrent to potential gay-bashers. “We are not trying to be cops,” said David, who on the street goes by the name “Flea.” “We are not about intimidating people.”

Roger Coggan, legal services director for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, said gays and lesbians are simply trying to send a message.

“What people who are taking self-defense classes are saying is we no longer will be afraid or intimidated,” he said.

Activists in other parts of Southern California are sending similar messages:

* In Long Beach, the stabbing death last year of a gay man as he walked out of a restaurant prompted ACT UP members to organize an informal neighborhood patrol. The Long Beach Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center has begun to draft plans for a permanent gay street patrol that would include one car team and several foot patrols.

* At Cal State Northridge, the circulation last month of flyers that called for attacks on homosexuals and offered free baseball bats for “gay-bashing and clubbing” prompted gay rights activists to schedule a self-defense class in February. In the meantime, the group is urging gays and lesbians to take advantage of a campus escort service at night.

* In San Diego, a rash of robberies and gay-bashing incidents over the past four months in the North Park and Hillcrest neighborhoods has prompted 55 gay men and lesbians to sign up for a self-defense course that attracted only five or six people three months ago. The class, offered at the San Diego Lesbian and Gay Men’s Community Center, teaches participants to avoid dangerous situations, such as walking alone at night in secluded areas.

* In Orange County, the Orange County Visibility League, a gay and lesbian organization, established a 24-hour hot line four months ago and plans a self-defense class for February. The group also plans to form a street patrol to monitor Laguna Beach and other areas where gay-bashings have occurred.

Although most responses to gay-bashing have come from gay and lesbian groups, the city of West Hollywood has sponsored a self-defense class for gay men. The first class, offered last month, attracted more than 50 participants. Nancy Greenstein, the city’s public safety coordinator, said she believes recent gay-bashing incidents and the anger over Wilson’s veto may have incited people to attend.

“People are saying, ‘I want to do something about it,’ ” she said. “There is more of an activist sentiment.”

Participants were told to avoid dark, isolated areas, walk confidently, carry a whistle, not respond to verbal attacks, keep car doors locked and call the police immediately after any incident.

This month, the city will hold a forum to discuss gay-bashing, Greenstein said. The forum will include talks on why people commit such crimes, how to report them, how such crimes are prosecuted and civil remedies for the victim.

After being victimized in three anti-gay hate crimes, Jeff LeTourneau, chairman of the Orange County Visibility League, said he carries an aluminum bat in his car. In one incident a man yelling anti-gay slogans threw a large rock and narrowly missed his head, he said.

“The rabid increase in hate crimes has made it intolerable,” he said. “I think it’s just a trend that we have to take responsibility for because no one else will.”